The National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, and the Feinberg School of medicine at Northwestern University analyzed coffee-drinking data from the UK Biobank (a large genetic study in Britain); half a million people participated by giving blood and answering detailed health questions. The age range of people was from 38 to 74.

Joe DeRupo, a spokesman for the National Coffee Association, said, “Coffee is loaded with antioxidants. Many are naturally occurring antioxidants found in the coffee bean, while others are created during the roasting process. It’s these compounds that science links with positive effects in reducing the risk of several diseases.”

The results were published in JAMA Internal Medicine and it’s good news for coffee lovers: drinking coffee can reduce the risk of many diseases, including cancer, Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and heart disease. It might also reduce inflammation in the body, help liver function, and it may even be able to help people recover from colon cancer. Woah! To top it all off, you can sip on eight or more cups a day and it would still be beneficial to your health. That’s an entire half-gallon jug, which I think if we all drank, we would be bouncing off the walls!

Dr. Eliseo Guallar, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote an editorial about the health benefits of coffee. She said, “I think now we can be reasonably reassured that overall, coffee drinking is a safe habit.” Hooray!

It doesn’t matter what kind of coffee you drink either — that includes decaf and instant coffee. So, we say, if you want more coffee, then you better go grab another cup of joe, or two, or three!